Got approved for $1000 worth of repairs on my vehicle by the state. While that won't fix everything, from what little I understand about cars and what's wrong with mine, that's definitely a great start.

Almost finished with my training for work, hoping to start regular hours next week. Depends on the daycare assistance situation (which is currently a big mess right now, this person needs to talk to this person...etc etc) which if it's not figured out by the end of the day today, I'll be without a daycare and have to start from scratch. Either way, though, I think I'm going to try to work some late-night stuff while Damon sleeps. I tend to be up until 2-3am these days anyway, so it's not much of a shift to stay up all night - especially if he's in daycare during the week and I can sleep some while he's gone.

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Started working on my tax return last night. That $6000 trip for two to Costa Rica saved my butt, let me tell you. It put me up into the income bracket for the child credit, and other than having to pay "self-employment taxes", I'm getting back a pretty good amount that I can put toward OVERDUE BILLS and PAYING PEOPLE BACK WHO HAVE HELPED ME. And then leaving a sizeable amount in the bank for emergencies.

It's going to feel good to not live off of pennies anymore. A job, money in the bank. I'll feel rich!

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So, my apartment is set up in such a way that none of the windows open except the one in the bedroom, and there's of course no screen on it. Since getting my cats, I haven't been opening it because Penny (the oldest/first cat) has always been a "flight risk", in that she has always been curious about the open door whenever we come in and out. I've been concerned about her leaving without realizing "hey it's damn cold out here".

The other day I cracked the window finally, needed to circulate the air in here... I've been getting sick (still am) and having to use breathing treatments and inhalers every day to ward off asthma attacks. I think once the heater kicked in due to the cold weather, all that dust and whatever that was in the vents started bugging me. So yeah, cracked the window. Not even two inches wide. Took Damon to daycare and came back. No Penny. I've left the window cracked open during the day (closed at night because it gets damn cold), left food out, hoping for a sign of her return. No Penny. :(

The remaining cat, Mimi, is totally content. I'm kind of surprised, since she was Penny's shadow since the day I got her as a rescue. But since Penny left, Mimi's been way more approachable and lovey. As the second cat, she was shy and would hide under furniture/etc for the longest time and very rarely would let me hold her.

So now, I'm torn. I miss my baby girl, she was my snuggle buddy and slept with me all the time. But maybe the cats didn't get along as well as I thought they did? Idk. I'm still hoping she comes back, but my hopes are somewhat less now after seeing a DIFFERENT cat eating the food I left out this morning. I had thought/hoped the missing food every morning meant she had been by... :(